White House 'war on coal' no slam dunk for GOP '14

Republicans have wasted little time jumping on the Environmental Protection Agency’s new climate rule, warning that Democrats in coal states will pay dearly at the polls for their ties to President Barack Obama’s regulatory machine.

But this might not be a slam-dunk strategy for the GOP. It certainly wasn’t in 2012, when Obama handily won reelection while Democrats prevailed in Senate races in West Virginia, Montana, Indiana and Ohio — all coal states where many voters have little love for the EPA.

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And the Democrats most vulnerable in 2014 did all they could Friday to get out in front of the issue by denouncing the new climate rule.

West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall complained that “this callous, ideologically driven agency continues to be numb to the economic pain that their reckless regulations cause.” Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky Democrat trying to unseat Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, not only criticized the agency’s proposal but even implied that McConnell shares the blame.

“Kentuckians deserve better than out-of-touch Washington regulation that further devastates an already ravaged region,” Grimes said in a statement. “The dysfunction in Sen. McConnell’s Washington continues to fail Kentucky families.”

In West Virginia, Democratic Senate candidate Natalie Tennant promised to “fight any Republican or any Democrat — including President Barack Obama — who tries to kill our energy jobs, whether they are coal, natural gas, wind or water.”

Other 2014 Democrats from energy-heavy states, like Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, have long separated themselves from Obama’s energy agenda. Landrieu, for example, often berates the administration over the pace of offshore oil and gas drilling permits and has voted with Republicans to hobble EPA regulations.

Of course, next year is a midterm election, not a presidential one, and the previous midterm in 2010 saw Democrats fall in coal states like Virginia and West Virginia as the Republicans flipped the House.

Once again, Republicans say, Democrats can run but can’t hide from their president’s climate policies.

“Democrat incumbents and challengers are going to be forced to explain this move by the Obama administration,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said after the EPA officially unveiled the rule Friday. “This is about jobs and energy costs — and polling shows that voters get it.”

“This is a direct assault from the administration on the economic lifeblood on many communities in coal states,” said Andy Sere, a Republican strategist and former chief of staff to Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.).

Even before Friday’s announcement, the GOP was beating the “war on coal” drumbeat in Senate races in Kentucky, West Virginia, Alaska and Louisiana, while aiming to tie Democrats to the unpopular EPA in House districts in Arizona, Illinois, Western New York, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The general line of attack: Obama’s regulations will wipe out jobs and send energy prices soaring. And voters will have both Obama and a particular hometown Democrat to thank.

Voters should expect that Democrats like Tennant, Grimes, Landrieu and Alaska Sen. Mark Begich “will be held accountable for supporting a liberal administration that has declared a radical war on coal and American energy development,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Brook Hougesen said.

Republicans have already been hitting Rahall for months on his ties to the administration. They seized on early reports of the details of Friday’s proposal to argue that Rahall’s efforts to work with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and other administration leaders on West Virginians’ behalf haven’t worked.

McConnell made a similar attack on Grimes, saying she has spent “exactly zero effort on behalf of Kentucky’s coal families while the president she supported waged war on them.”

He’s also tried to tie her to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is hosting an Oct. 11 fundraiser for Grimes. McConnell put out a video that quotes Reid as saying that “coal makes us sick.”

The EPA rule may also come up in attacks on Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick in Arizona and Bill Enyart in Illinois, a series of Democratic House challengers in Western Pennsylvania and challengers in the 6th districts in Kentucky and Ohio, West Virginia’s 2nd District and the 23rd District in Western New York.

Democrats also point out that the “war on coal” message didn’t do much good for Mitt Romney, while Democrats like Joe Manchin in West Virginia, Jon Tester in Montana, Joe Donnelly in Indiana and Sherrod Brown in Ohio won their Senate seats last year.